DX: I wouldn’t say he got one battle, he just has one that’s well known.
40 Cal: That’s what I mean, I never heard of any other battles. He just had that one well known one and in his case that’s all it took.

DX: How does 40 Cal create his own individuality different from dudes like Papoose, Cassidy, and the others.
40 Cal: I can go in any lane. On my new project Mooga, I go in different lanes. I can go back-pack lane without putting a back-pack on, I can go concept on them and still keep my street swag. I can go club without trying to play myself. I can do everything, I just want to show everybody I’m a all around triple-double rapper. Like on this new album Mooga I did a song called “Cuarenta” a Spanish joint. They can play that in a Reggaeton and Hip Hop atmosphere. That what makes me different from all the other dudes, the other dudes is just one lane.

DX: I was listening to the Mooga album about a half hour ago. You have a track with JR Writer called “The Harlem Shuffle,” what is that?
40 Cal: That’s something we do, I’m a introduce you to the dance a little later. Me and JR been getting it in for a long time. When I first got on the radio, Cam put me on with JR Writer and we been getting it in ever since. When I first got the beat it was like, “Let me get JR on.” I was like let me make this a little bit bigger than what it is.

DX: We all know your affiliation with Dipset. Though you always been down with them, it always seemed you separated yourself and had your own grinding going on so why was that?
40 Cal: When I first started with rap I had my own crew called Skeme Team which was with my neighborhood and people I grew up with. Once I got down with Dipset, I never forgot my family. So it was like once I get on and open a lane for myself I’m a look out for Skeme Team. At the end of the day, I always was taught to be your own boss and make a lane for all that was with me.

DX: What’s good with Jha Jha leaving Dipset?
40 Cal: When I first heard about it, it was just one ear and out the other. It was like when I heard Jha Jha left it was like, “So yeah, what we gonna order to eat today?” I like Jha Jha, she is a real talented girl. I guess she felt she wasn’t getting the right attention. It’s hard to get the attention you need when you got a crew that’s about 10 deep. That goes back to the question you asked me why we do these short term deals, because our crew is so big it allows you to hear everybody album every year. I’m guaranteed to drop every year, I already dropped a project this year. I’m tryna drop three projects this year.

DX: But what’s good with the other members, Hell Rell, JR Writer, and Juelz. What’s your relationship with them?
40 Cal: I spoke to all of them, I spoke to everyone, but Juelz recently. That’s, because Juelz been busy, I spoke to JR, I speak to Hell Rell all the time, Duke Da God [click to read]. I spoke to Killa last week. The relationship is still cool, but it’s not as good as it used to be. We not all in the same studio, it’s like that family act. A family that eats together says together, in the music industry a family that records together stays together.

DX: People was telling me like “Yo, you talking to 40 today ask em what’s good with Cam’ron, where is he at, what he doing?”
40 Cal: The big homie is good when I be talking to him. I be asking like, “Yo you know people want to know,” but he beats me to the punch all the time. I’m a tell you this though, he told me he had a mixtape coming out. I don’t know what it’s called, when it’s dropping, but expect that first.

DX: Is Dipset still a movement as far as the New York City Hip Hop scene?
40 Cal: We still a movement, we just got a couple difficulties over here. We all just human. Just from watching the music industry, I just see that this is regular stuff. Every crew had differences, every crew. The only crew I would say that didn’t break up I would say The L.O.X., but I seen J-Hood drag that D-Block chain on em on the Internet. Every crew goes through it.

DX: [Laughs], How you feel about J-Hood doing that to D-Block though?
40 Cal: I don’t know, I don’t know what really was the situation. Hood has been down with them for a minute and he has yet to drop a project. That could do that to a person I guess. I can’t say I can relate to him, because I been in the game less years, and I’m working on my sixth project. I can feel what he’s talking about.

DX: [Laughs], It’s like a lion in a cage when it finally got out it goes mad it didn’t eat, so it goes crazy!
40 Cal: Yeah, when you on a record label or part of a crew you got a choice. Like the Wu-Tang [Clan], this is my theory and I don’t want nobody to think I’m dissing them or no way. It’s about eight or nine members in the Wu-Tang, right? Continued on page 4 »